Thanks to Steve W2SG and Herb's niece, Theresa Brier, for this excellent photo of Herb.
(Click the photo for a larger image)
Original photo taken Nov. 5, 1957 and was probably published the following day in the Gary Post-Tribune.
The back of the original photo shows the photographer assignment ticket to cover "Herb Brier tuning Sputnik with Muttnik."Laika, a Russian dog, was the first living creature sent into orbit aboard Sputnik 2, and Herb was obviously interested in this activity.
Receiver is a Hallicrafters SX-71, with a reel-to-reel tape recorder on top to capture the signals from space.

Thanks again to Steve W2SG and Herb's niece, Theresa Brier, for this excellent photo of Herb.
(Click the photo for a larger image)
Original photo from May 23, 1962 provided to Ancestry.com by Theresa Brier.
Ham radios are a Hallicrafters HT-37 transmitter on top and a Heathkit RX-1 Mohawk receiver beneath (with some knob modifications).

The next two photos provided by Dolores Slater, KA9DFH(They were loaned to Dolores by Herb's sister, Lucille)

This photo is from a July 10, 1959 newspaper article about Herb.

This QSL provided by Jim Harney, KF9EX (with thanks also to Lake County ARC)

This QSL provided by Chuck Hanusin, K9GSVClick here to see the reverse side of this card (Aug 8, 1957 QSO), signed by Herb

This QSL provided by Dan Scheetz, W9DWS (from W9KLI)

This QSL provided by Dan Scheetz, W9DWS (from WA9EZJ)Click here to see the reverse side of this card, signed by Herb

1951 QSL courtesy of the K8CX Collection, provided by Bob Ballantine, W8SUClick here to see the reverse side of this card, with a personal note and signed by Herb

The only W9AD QSL
(Photoshopped by Stan W4SV. Click for larger image.)
No known real QSL cards exist with Herb's final call sign, issued less than a year before he died.
If you find a real W9AD QSL, please send a high-quality scan to . Thanks!

This card is patterned like those for our Chapter 36 club calls,
one of which is W9EGQ, Herb's original call sign.

Herbert S. Brier was born Feb. 28, 1914 in Lemont, Illinois. He died May 21, 1977 at Porter Memorial Hospital
in Valparaiso, Indiana, and he is buried at Evergreen Memorial Park Cemetery in Hobart (see his headstone
here. See Herb's obituary in the Chesterton Tribune.
(Thanks to Carl, W9CJH, and Lila, N9ESS, for allowing me to scan their original obituary.) Herb was a paraplegic,
stricken in childhood with rheumatoid arthritis which left him bedridden for the remainder of his life. His many
accomplishments, in spite of his severe disability, made him a true inspiration to many.

In 1975 Herb moved to 409 S. 14th Street in Chesterton (Porter County), but many remember that he lived at
385 Johnson Street in Gary for most of his life. Herb was first licensed in 1931 as W9EGQ, and it was in late
1976 that he was issued W9AD. He had a Morse code proficiency certificate for 35 words per minute.

Herb was a long-time member of the Lake County
Amateur Radio Club. It was his friends in Lake County who secured a QCWA Life Membership for him in 1967
so that he could be counted with them as a Charter Member of the new QCWA Chapter that they were forming...
this chapter, Chapter 36.

Herb Brier, AuthorOver 30 years of monthly columns in major magazines

Here I am going to try to chronicle Herb's many written works and reprint as much as I am allowed.
This project will likely never be complete, but I am finding much help and many resources. Herb's work for
Popular Electronics and CQ Magazine was extensive. Permission has been granted to reprint Popular Electronics
articles, and there are now fourteen that you can view. ARRL has given partial permission for five (of seven)
QST articles which are also available below. I don't think reprint permission can be obtained for CQ or 73
magazines, but there are means to view those also (see details below).

At the HamCall.net website you can view every issue of CQ Magazine since
their very first edition in 1945 (excluding the most recent two years). These archives are viewable in both low-res
and high-res JPG's, and also PDF's... and they are searchable! However, you can only view the first
10 pages for free. So if you search for W9EGQ, you can see their full listing (over 300!) but will mostly only be able
to view the Table-of-Contents pages unless you purchase a subscription. Subscriptions are quite reasonable, and will
allow you full access to the text and diagrams of all of Herb's articles and columns, from his first in August 1945,
until his death in 1977. You might find other old-timer friends searching this resource also.

Former LaPorte resident Glen Zook, K9STH, has made a special effort to help me document Herb Brier's writing career.
Glen possesses a nice collection of Popular Electronics magazines from 1956-66, and he has gone through them and provided
a complete list of Herb's work by date, column name, page number, and subject. Glen's original index can be viewed as both
a Word document or a PDF file. Glen has also provided
scans of some of his favorite articles. Thanks Glen!

Michael Holley has created an extensive history and documentation web collection for electronic kit-building
company, Southwest Technical Products Corp. (SWTPC). Their kits were often
the subject of many articles and cover pages for Popular Electronics magazine. But for us, his
Popular Electronics collection
shows many of the Table-of-Contents pages that I have used in our index to list Herb Brier's contributions from 1963-75.
Thanks Michael!

QST (ARRL) articles by (or about) Herb Brier:
(Sept. 1935 is the earliest published work found so far. Herb was 21 yrs old.)

If you are an ARRL member, you can login to their website and do a
QST Archive Search, which yields the following articles that you can view or download for your personal
use (in PDF format). You can click on the articles in bold blue text below which are JPG reprints of articles
taken from ARRL's QST View CD-ROM collection and are reprinted by permission.

April 1966(Amateur Radio ran at least from Sept. 1965 - Jan. 1975. No information on articles between June 1970 - Jan. 1975.)

CQ Magazine Column Headings

Please visit CQ Amateur Radio on the web for subscriptions and current news.
Please visit HamCall.net to subscribe to the full CQ Magazine Archive collection!
Besides Herb Brier, you can find information on many Elmers and Old-Timers in our amateur radio history!

NOVICE SHACK ran from Jan. 1952 - Aug. 1954

the Novice Shack ran from Sept. 1954 - July 1955

NOVICE SHACK ran from Nov. 1973 - Dec. 1975

Novice ran from Jan. 1976 - Sept. 1977

Novice ran from Jan. 1976 - Sept. 1977(W9AD first appeared in Dec. 1976)

Novice ran from Jan. 1976 - Sept. 1977

Novice ran from Jan. 1976 - Sept. 1977(W9AD first appeared in Dec. 1976)